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The Boston Red Sox have won the World Series! I guess that’s about the most popular news story in these parts. My father was a huge Red Sox fan and I only wish he could be here to savor this victory by his beloved baseball team!

Part of the reason they won the World Series is that they kept injuries to a minimum and went in to the post season will a physically intact team. Speaking of physically intact, I could use a lesson in remaining so.

I don’t quite know what I did, but it appears to have been a deep strain of the abdominal muscles due to doing an exercise I have not done in ages. Naturally I went too heavy on it and paid the price.

I have yet to figure out if it’s just a bad pull or worse, like a breach of the abdominal wall. In any case, it precludes any direct work to that area as I let it heal. With this news in mind, I would make a case for easing into ANY exercise program.

As I have mentioned many times, the real value of exercise is in the quality of the exercise NOT the quantity. It’s easy to overdo things, and the result is never positive when you do that, as evidenced by my latest injury issue.

Don’t get me wrong, exercise is one of the most important components in staying healthy, but understand that there is good exercise and not so good exercise. Always start very conservatively and don’t push too fast too soon.

Professional athletes and movies stars often embark on rigorous exercise routines because they have a limited amount of time to get into shape and millions of dollars are invested in what they are doing.

We however, being ordinary people are not forced by circumstance to rush this process and so should go slow and easy. If you are middle aged and don’t have a history of intense exercise, you should get checked out by a doctor prior to starting an exercise program.

Stress tests can indicate cardiac abnormalities that might give you a problem, and so it’s better to be safe than sorry. Even people with heart conditions can and should exercise, BUT they should also start very conservatively and build up their duration and intensity slowly.

Your beginning routine might be so easy that you doubt it’s helping you at all, but in truth you are being smart and setting the stage for future improvements. Even simple stretches to start and end your day might be all you need for a beginning routine until you feel that you want to bring things up a notch. At that point you can begin to build on a solid foundation.

For those of you who may be fibromyalgia sufferers or know someone who is, you might like to know that there are several products that can be of help. These products do not address the root cause of Fibro, BUT they can potentially offer some relief from the symptoms.

The first is called “methylfolate” and is a form of folic acid that can be absorbed and utilized by people with the MTHFR gene defect. Since 55% of the North American population carries that gene, lots of people out there cannot properly absorb folic acid.

Without the ability to properly absorb folic acid, the toxic amino acid homocysteine can build up in the blood causing increased inflammation which exacerbates Fibromyalgia. Using methylfolate can help lower homocystiene levels and thus help Fibro, not to mention lowering your risk of heart disease as well!

Here is a link to Jarrow Formula’s production

http://www.age-better.info/methylfolate

If you try this nutritional supplement, please let me know how it works for you. Dosage requirements would vary from person to person, but the rule of thumb I go by is to start with the smallest dose, and see how that works for you.

Start with one capsule (400 mcg) and you can take this 3-4 times per week or every other day. If you have the MTHFR gene defect, you should notice a feeling of calmness and well being.

You can tell if you have this defect by eating asparagus and noticing of yoiur urine has a strong odor afterward. If the odor is present, this is an indication that you have this gene defect, and would benefit by taking methyl donors like methylfolate, SAM-E, or trimethylglicine.

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The other two items I will mention are magnesium, and malic acid. It’s quite possible that you could combine the two in the form of magnesium malate, and although I have never used this form of magnesium it would be logical that it might be effective.

Malic acid is low in Fibromyalgia sufferers and so it makes logical sense to try supplementing these two nutrients to see if they offer relief. You can read an interesting paper about malic acid and Fibromyalgia at the link below:

http://healingpoints.com/Fibromyalgia.PDF

If you try this approach please write and tell me about your experiences with it, as well as asking any questions you have, and I will try my best to find the answers for you.

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I am half Armenian, well actually since I was adopted it’s more accurate to say that my father was of Armenian extraction, and I find that after his passing, I have an interest in learning more about the language and culture. It makes me feel closer to my father.

There is an instrument, a very ancient instrument from Armenia called the “Duduk.” It’s a wind instrument played with a reed that is appearing more often in Hollywood and other venues due to it’s mystical and enchanting sound.

The Armenians make this instrument from apricot wood and the legend is that this wood originally grew in the Garden of Eden which some scholars say was adjacent to Ancient Armenia, in the valley of the Zagros mountains in what is now Iran.

The Duduk has been described by some as sounding almost like a human voice and is not played all over the world by musicians, many of whom are not Armenian but were drawn to the instrument because of it’s soulful sound.

Here is a clip that I hope will enchant all who listen to it… The song is called “Nostalgia” and it is masterfully played by Kamil Radzimowski.

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This newsletter is read by people all over the world, so if you have something that you would like me to share such as music from your country or culture with the other readers, please let me know.

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Being a huge Star Trek fan, this clip is a favorite of mine. In it, the character of Spock explains to fellow Vulcan Lt. Valeris, that there is much more to wisdom than just logic. It is interesting because it is an example of the way the character of Spock evolved in the films and learns to come to terms with his human half.

He learns that his Vulcan logic needs to be complimented by his human feelings and perspective. He understand the shortcomings of denying his true self and knows that he cannot achieve wisdom without fully embracing who and what he is.

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“True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are ever united.”